Images from the vector graphics family.
It looks like their will be a standard (perhaps
two) for the use of vector graphics on the Web within a year.
When it is supported by the browsers that support images it will make image rich sites much easier to see and use because vector graphics are so much smaller than bitmap images and will download faster - less time waiting, more time for gaining visual information and delight.
Designers and image-makers will have to move what they do and were they look to adjust to this change: now photographs are the primary source from images on the Web and Photoshop the primary tool for working with them.
Programs like Illustrator and FreeHand will be the primary tools and new sources need to be studied. (Right now trademarks - like IBM, The New York Stock Exchange or Apple:
- seem to be the common models for images from this family. They are, of course still bitmap images.)
The places to look new inspiration are rich and delightful. They spread from Balinese shadow puppets to the Book of Kells, from surimono woodcuts to Matisse cut-outs, from pouchoir to Islamic manuscript borders, from Japanese crests to Pennsylvania scherenschnitte.
All share these common qualities: they are based on flat color and two dimensional space and make no use of shadow nor the illusion of three dimensions. Most are cut rather than drawn or painted.
